Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and Freelancer do not belong to me – they are the properties of Sunrise and Microsoft respectively.
Gundam Seed: Freelancer's Fate
Author's Note: Hi there! This fanfic is a crossover between Gundam Seed and one of my favorite games, Freelancer (a space combat simulator). The majority of the characters will come from Gundam Seed, whereas the story will be a mix between the original Freelancer plot, some parts of the Gundam Seed storyline, and some of my own original ideas. For those familiar with the Freelancer storyline, I'm sorry to say that I do not plan to include the Nomads in this story.
You will find that some characters will be a little OOC to better suit the story (Kira, for example, cries less… thank goodness). I will also be adding a few OCs here and there.
Enough said. I will go on with the prologue now. Enjoy!
It was the 23rd century
Mankind's darkest hour
The war had been raging for almost a hundred years
We had been fighting for so long
No one could remember the reason why it started in the first place
All we knew there were two sides...
The Coalition and the Alliance
For decades, millions died for the same piece of rock
Again... and again...
Finally, one side manage to gain the upper hand
The Coalition...
In desperation, The Alliance launched five sleeper ships
The hope was, for them to begin again,
Far for the wars and strive that have befallen Earth
To start free from the prejudices that has divided us for so long
Each sleeper ships was christened after its patron nations
The Bretonia
The Rheinland
The Hispania
The Kusari
The Liberty
Against all odds, the colony ships broke through the Coalition blockade,
And headed for the Sirius system
That was 800 years ago
When we came here to rebuilt our lives
We've come a long way since then
We have grown
We have prospered
We have flourished
But, we will never forget...
Prologue: Deal of a Lifetime
Freeport 7, Sigma 17 System
The triple suns of the Sigma 17 System never failed to amaze Kira as he marveled at their beauty. Few systems in Sirius can match the visual beauty of the Sigma 17 System, and none had the system's triple suns configuration. Yet beneath the beauty of the system was the less than desirable presence of the two largest and most notorious organizations in the whole of Sirius. Their presence, as well as the existence of a sizeable radiation field made Sigma 17 a pretty rough place for amateurs to play around. The probability of anybody finding himself in the wrong place and at the wrong time was high in the Sigma 17 System.
Kira sighed deeply as he waited for his turn to dock with Freeport 7. A large structure consisting of a central core and several branches, each housing a biodome capable of providing vast supplies of food and water, Freeport 7 is one of the largest of its kind. Run by the Zoners, the massive space station was a popular choice for traders and criminals alike. Maintaining a policy of neutrality, the Zoners would grant anyone access to their territories as long as they did not step on their tails.
Understood. Your request to dock is granted. Proceed to dock 5.
Finally. Kira had waited long enough. He immediately brought power to the engines of the Rhino freighter he was piloting. Preferring to do the piloting himself instead of letting the auto-pilot system do the work, Kira slowly brought the cumbersome vessel towards the assigned dock.
Taking a few seconds off the piloting, Kira turned his attention to a young man roughly the same age as him, "Wake up, Tolle."
"Mmmm…"
"Come on, we've reached. Stop sleeping," Kira did not hesitate to give his half asleep friend a wake up call. As always, Tolle was the king of procrastinating, and Kira was having a hard time waking him up.
It took a while before Tolle gave in to Kira's persistence.
"Fine, I'm getting up," Tolle finally conceded to Kira's non-stop pestering, "So this is Freeport 7 huh?"
"Pretty impressive, isn't it," Kira said as he carefully brought the slow and cumbersome freighter down to the landing pad, "The Zoners are probably the only ones capable of building such an impressive space station. I heard that unlike other space stations, the Freeports are self sufficient."
Still feeling a little drowsy, Tolle stretched out his arms in a bid to drive away his snoozy mode, "Oops, sorry," Tolle said as his outstretched right arm hit Kira straight on the head.
Kira had no idea whether Tolle did that accidentally or intentionally; he just could not tell considering the playful nature of Tolle. The brunet remained silent, though, as he had to stay focused on the current task ahead. First, Kira had to bring the large freighter through the dock entrance and into one of the many elevators. Next, he had to bring that large vessel out of the elevator and onto the assigned landing pad he was earlier given. Landing a space craft was even more tedious than flying one, and Kira had to give his full attention to the landing sequence to avoid crashing into anything, especially since his Rhino freighter was a rather large vessel.
"Say, Kira, what's the name of that guy again?" Tolle followed his question with a loud and contagious yawn.
"Yuna Roma Seiran," Kira was sure Tolle had asked this question before, "Honestly, you should really start to remember things, you know."
"Guess you're right," Tolle felt a little guilty of his forgetfulness, "I'll remember next time. Anyway, today's our big day, Kira. It's time we earn some credits."
"I totally agree," Kira quipped as the freighter finally settled safely on the landing pad.
Best friends since young, Kira Yamato and Tolle Koenig had left Bretonia a few months back to try their luck at making a fortune. Despite objections of galactic proportions from their family members and friends, the two of them still went off on their journey. Equipped with just a lone Rhino freighter, Kira and Tolle attempted to make it big in the real world. Their get rich quick scheme had been rather unsuccessful until the pair of greenhorns ended up in the Border Worlds (not exactly the nicest place). There, Kira somehow managed to get his hands on a huge amount of quasi-legal boron (a type of commodity used for trading) at a ridiculously low price.
In another stroke of unbelievably good luck, Tolle was contacted by a stranger working for Samura Industries, one of the most powerful companies in House Kusari. After meeting an employee from Samura Industries in Kurile, a planet in the Sigma 17 System, Kira and Tolle managed to strike a deal. The agreement was to have the company paying the two Bretonians one million credits for the entire shipment of boron. And as discussed earlier, the million credits deal would be sealed in Freeport 7. The man Kira and Tolle were supposed to meet was a man by the name of Yuna Roma Seiran.
Of course, the fact that the two fortunate buddies were still alive and kicking was quite an achievement in itself.
Excited by the prospect of earning their first million, Kira and Tolle darted to the pre-arranged meeting place the moment their freighter was secured on the landing pad. Tolle was especially enthusiastic, the earlier drowsiness he had long gone. Nothing was going to stop him from earning those million credits. Nothing was going to ruin his big day.
Freeport 7 Bar
"Gosh, I thought his name sounded gay enough. Never expect him to look gay as well," Tolle whispered to Kira as a slim man with purple hair stood in front of them. His head slightly tilted upwards, Yuna looked more like an arrogant brat from a rich family than an experienced trader that he claimed to be.
"That's not very nice, Tolle," Kira responded by softly elbowing his friend at the side, "Even if it's true."
Tolle nearly burst out laughing upon hearing Kira's words, but he was able to control himself, fortunately. Oblivious to what Kira and Tolle had said, Yuna thought that the two youngsters he had just met were singing his praises. Always calling himself a veteran trader, Yuna sure had a sky high ego to feed. He would not admit it, but Yuna owed much of his success to his father's influence in Kusari.
Proud as ever, Yuna was the first to speak, "So, I presume your shipment is in good condition, right?"
"Yup," a slightly irritated Tolle answered rather rudely, which peeved Yuna a bit.
"3.5 metric tonnes of boron. I believe one of my agents had verified the goods at Kurile, right?" Yuna continued with his arrogant attitude, obviously looking down at the two youngsters.
Kira and Tolle nodded their heads earnestly.
"Fine," Yuna started taking out a whole bunch of contract papers, "Sign here… here… let's see… here…. no, wait… here… that's right…"
"Isn't that where you're supposed to sign?"
"Really? Well, sign here then. You better not sign at the wrong place, Mr. Yamato."
Does this guy even know what he's doing? Tolle could have sworn that Yuna looked like a total blockhead to him. Kira, on the other hand, just obediently scribbled his signature on wherever Yuna pointed his fingers at.
Unknown ship, some distance away from Freeport 7
"You look disappointed, Ades," Rau Le Creuset said as he moved towards the bridge's table top radar monitor.
The captain's chair swiveled back as Ades turned to face his commander, "Well, I guess we won't be too late until we hear from the council…"
"It will be too late," Rau interrupted, "My sixth sense is telling me so. If we let things slip now, we will eventually have to pay with our lives."
Ades kept silent as Rau showed him a few classified pictures taken by his spies.
Rau saw that Ades had no answer, "Liberty's new weapons; they must be seized before they can be used against us. Furthermore, we will get to get rid of an extremely dangerous existence at the same time. Miss this chance, and we will might not even have the chance to regret about our failure."
One of the ship's crew received a coded message from Rau's operatives on Freeport 7, "Commander! Our infiltration team confirmed the presence of two of Liberty's new weapons! They have successfully taken control of the two weapons!"
"Which one of them has the one with stealth capabilities?" Rau asked.
The bridge crew replied immediately, "Nicole has it, Commander."
Rau smiled, "Have Dearka return immediately. Nicole is to destroy Freeport 7 and any survivors as discretely as possible. Make sure no one survives."
"Yes Sir!" the crew replied.
Freeport 7 Bar
"Is that all?" Kira asked, his hands hurting a little from the countless papers Yuna had at his disposal.
"Well…" Yuna rubbed his chins, "I believe we're done."
Finally! Tolle let out a sigh of relief as the deal was close to being done. The last ten minutes had been about Yuna trying to figure out where Kira had to sign. With the million credits within his grasps, Tolle was starting to lose his patience.
"That's it! I will have the million credits transferred to your neural net by tomorrow morning," Yuna announced as he stood up and offered a handshake to Kira.
Kira was surprised that Yuna had offered a handshake, "Arh… thanks! It has been great working with you!"
Yuna gave Kira a short handshake and turned towards the exit of the bar. Vain as he was, Yuna used one of the bar's windows, which faced the dark expense of space outside, as a mirror. With the triple suns of the Sigma 17 System as a backdrop, the vain Yuna intended to use the windows to check his "appearance". But before Yuna could even make any adjustments, his eyes caught sight of something weird outside of Freeport 7.
"There's… something…" pointing outside of the window with his trembling fingers, Yuna was about to make a huge boo-hah over what he saw when the space station was rocked hard.
"Argh!!!" Yuna let out a high pitch shriek as the entire bar shook violently as if there was an earthquake.
Kira and Tolle's first instinct was to fall flat on the ground and shield their heads with their palms. They certainly did not want any falling object to hit the back of their heads. Yuna, however, just remained rooted to his spot. Whatever Yuna saw outside the space station was preventing him from making any sane decisions. Before Yuna could open his big mouth again, one of the ceiling lights came crashing down on him.
"Argh!!!" another high pitch shriek and Yuna was out cold.
Warning! Warning! Unknown units have breached the defense perimeter. All personnel, man all stations. To all civilians and visitors, please proceed to the rescue vessels at dock 7. The space station's announcement system blared loudly as Freeport 7 took more hits from a mysterious enemy.
"Kira! What are you doing? We've got to return to our ship! The whole place is falling apart!" Tolle shouted as Kira remained at his position.
Ignoring Tolle, Kira inched towards Yuna, "We've got to help him!"
"Worry about yourself, Kira!" Tolle shouted at the top of his lungs.
Kira shook his head and pointed his fingers at the unconscious Yuna, "One million credits!"
Crap… what was I thinking? I nearly dumped my million credits away! Tolle rushed to Yuna's side immediately, "What are you waiting for, Kira? Get him to our ship!"
Outside Freeport 7
In response to the sudden attack on Freeport 7, several fighter wings were sent out to deal with the enemy. Comprising mostly of "Hawk" Heavy Fighters and a few "Eagle" Very Heavy Fighters, the pilots were shocked at the scene that greeted them.
There was no sign of the enemy in the vicinity.
"What the hell? I was sort of expecting a whole bunch of enemy ships," one of the pilots said as he stared at the emptiness ahead of him, partly disappointed that the "awesome" battle he was anticipating turned out to be an empty expense of space.
"It's as if the enemy is invisible or something," the other pilot had no idea how right he was, for his ship was blown to bits by a beam shot from nowhere a few seconds later.
"Dennis! No!" the squad leader shouted in despair as his teammate was killed instantly, "Where are the enemies!? Freeport 7 Command, this is alpha leader, locate the enemy quick!"
"Alpha leader, this is Freeport 7 Command. Our long range sensors are not picking up any hostile forces!" the reply was far from satisfactory.
"What do you mean by that!? How could the enemy fire on us if they're not… ARGH!!!" the communications channel was replaced with a buzz as the fighters were taken out one by one by an unknown force.
"Freaking hell! What is happening!?" one of the pilots exclaimed in shock before his Hawk fighter was shredded to pieces.
"Alpha leader, alpha leader! What's your status? I repeat. What's your status?" the Freeport 7 Command called out frantically as the communications channel was filled with screams and desperate cries for help, "All wings, report your status!"
There was no reply.
"To all ships in the area, this is Freeport 7. We're under attack by unknown forces! Request for assistance!" the Freeport 7 command hailed desperately for help, "I repeat! We're under attack by unknown forces! Request for assis… …"
Rescue vessel
"Oh my goodness!" Tolle, who was lucky enough to get a "window" seat in the cramped rescue vessel, exclaimed in shock as Freeport 7 was vaporized, "Kira! Did you see that?"
"Yup," Kira nodded his head unenthusiastically. Having a massive space station exploding before you isn't the most inspiring sight.
As soon as Freeport 7 was destroyed, the cruise engines of the rescue vessel kicked in, propelling the vessel forward at great speeds. The scattered remains of Freeport 7 soon disappeared from view as the rescue vessel brought the few lucky survivors out of the system.
What was supposed to be a great day had turned out to be a fiery one, literally. This is supposed to be the deal of a lifetime. Kira shook his head in dismay at the sudden turn of events.
Unknown ship
"So some of them got away. As usual, Nicole's too soft for his own good," Rau commented as he read the report.
"What do we do now?" Ades asked.
"No worries. We have operatives throughout the colonies. Those few lucky survivors will be taken care of," Rau replied.
Ades asked again, "Do we proceed now?"
Rau nodded, "Of course. Set course for Zone 21. We shall capture Liberty's remaining toys."
End of Prologue
There you have it, my story's prologue. The first chapter will focus on the aftermath of the destruction of Freeport 7. Kira and Tolle will meet some interesting people on Planet Manhattan (a planet in the New York System).
This story will feature some ships from Freelancer (the Rhino is one of them) and quite a number of mobile suits/ armors, battleships as well as technology from Gundam Seed. Please note that at this point of the story, mobile suits are still not in use (at least publicly) except for House Rheinland, which uses the GINN. Therefore, do not expect Kira to get his hands on the Strike (yes, he will pilot the Strike at some point) until a few chapters later. The next chapter is just some background information on the Freelancer universe. Check it out if you're unfamiliar with it. Chapter One will be out in around one week.
Thanks for reading!
